Raw Revelations: ZZ Top Jams Backstage

It's been made pretty clear in the several weeks of Raw's new "Guest host" plan, exactly what purposes this all serves. With Trump, Batista and Million Dollar Man, it was to move some storylines along, and still keep Batista's name fresh while he's injured. In the past two weeks, with Seth Green and ZZ Top, it was more apparent the hosting gigs were to allow celebs to promote their upcoming series or concert tours. ZZ Top could have been just about any other musical group, talking up an album or concert series. They had several short backstage skits, all involving Santino Marella to attempt to make them more comedic for younger fans. These skits basically involved a little bit of dialogue from ZZ, and then the instrumental of one of their famous songs playing behind them while they jammed on guitars with Santino.

Maybe Mr. McMahon put a tight leash on what ZZ Top could say or do, or they were just told they could promote themselves, but I didn't expect them to have any incidents in the ring with a mic talking to Randy Orton. Notice how Cena came out to hype them up as guest hosts, but they weren't introduced and brought out. In fact they made a brief appearance at the end of Raw, driving their trademark red car out as if they were just arriving to perform at a concert. I'm expecting the next host will be more involved and hopefully will make things fun like Seth Green did...

For some reason, neither the WWE Draft nor Chris Jericho saying it himself has kept Jericho off the WWE Raw TV show. He's been on it several weeks now fighting Mark Henry. Henry won both times, via countout and last night's DQ when Jericho introduced a chair. Clearly, they wanted to hype Night of Champions in all its glory, but why have Jericho make a big deal of the fact he'll never be on the show, a-gain? Strange.

The announcement of the 6 Pack Challenge for the US Title was interesting. It involves Kofi defending against Jack Swagger, MVP, Miz, Big Show and Carlito. 3 of the guys in the match are former US Champs, while Miz and Swagger are hungry for that title. I could see this match taking a surprise turn for its winner. I don't see MVP winning it, and after Show decimated everyone in the ring it's hard to say he'll win. Swagger or Miz could be the surprise winners here. Question, why wasn't Evan Bourne included, especially after his win over Kofi not long ago? Let's hope Bourne's not on the shelf again..

We had another divas match last night, this time the "Legs" edition to showcase the legs of Kelly Kelly, Rosa Mendes, Gail Kim and Alicia Fox. Alicia stole the pinfall while there was a distractiong outside the ring. The divas looked great, and hopefully these four will be developed character-wise more...Rosa Mendes especially seems like she could become a top heel diva if they create the right stories for her.

In the main event, we saw Cena steal the win as Orton tried to Punt Kick him near the corner. Cena rolled up Orton for the win, while HHH was outside the ring dealing with Legacy. So this may signal that Cena won't be getting that same pinfall come Sunday. It's a teaser, and still looks like Orton may maintain the title. After all, who else is there for WWE Title contenders in terms of heels right now?

Next week we get Raw hosted by Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA All-Star, Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq's a big fan of WWE, has been seen at events and even was part of a storyline with Carlito where he hit him with a chair backstage. Expect this to be quite the interesting episode of Raw, and another way for WWE to get onto ESPN's Sportscenter. Wouldn't mind seeing Shaq put himself into a match against Big Show, but that may be wishful thinking for the big man...More than likely it'd be Shaq & Hornswoggle versus Chavo Guerrero.